Bowman stepping down as head of CPS' early childhood program

Letters from Obama, Emanuel, Duncan read at board's monthly meeting

April 25, 2012|By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Chicago Tribune reporter

At the Chicago Board of Education’s monthly meeting Wednesday, Barbara Bowman, 83, was read a handwritten note from President Barack Obama, a letter from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and one from former CPS chief Arne Duncan, who first brought her to the district in 2004. (HANDOUT)

Barbara Bowman, chief of Chicago Public Schools'early childhood program and mother of White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, is stepping down from the district.

At the Chicago Board of Education's monthly meeting Wednesday, Bowman, 83, was read a handwritten note from President Barack Obama, a letter from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and one from former CPS chief Arne Duncan, who first brought her to the district in 2004.

Bowman was born and raised on the South Side, and her father, Robert Taylor, was chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority; the Robert Taylor Homes development was named after him.

Bowman began teaching at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools' nursery school and went on to work at other preschools and elementary schools. With President Lyndon Johnson's creation of the Head Start program, Bowman co-founded the Chicago School for Early Childhood Education, which is now known as the Erikson Institute, a graduate school and research center specializing in early childhood education.

"She's one of the go-to people in the country about young children and the education of at-risk and minority children," said Samuel Meisels, president of the Erikson Institute.

He added that through her work at CPS, Bowman has been instrumental in ensuring that early childhood education doesn't end at kindergarten, but rather continues with a focused curriculum for youngsters to third grade.

In his letter, Duncan, secretary of the Department of Education, described Bowman as a "giant" in the field and said more educators today understand that the first step in closing the racial "achievement gap" begins with early childhood education.

Bowman, who plans to keep teaching at the Erikson Institute, encouraged new district administrators to continue investing in early childhood. And she said her eight years at the district taught her "there is no quick fix."